DESIGN OF A CULTURE SYSTEM TO STUDY ANTHRAQUINONES ELICITATION UNDER SHEAR STRESS IN RUBIA TINCTORUM CELL SUSPENSION CULTURES

BUSTO, V.D.; CALABRÓ LÓPEZ, A.; RODRIGUEZ TALOU, J.; GIULIETTI, A.M.; MERCHUL, J.C.

Rosario, Argentina

Congreso; II Congreso Internacional-REDBIO-Argentina. VII Simposio Nacional de Biotecnología REDBIO-Argentina. 20 a 24 de Abril, 2009.; 2009

Elicitation of plant cell cultures is an effective strategy to enhance the production of many pharmaceutical compounds, secondary metabolites among them. Some abiotic elicitors have been used to induce secondary metabolite accumulation in many plant species, which include shear stress. Rubia tinctorum suspension cultures produce anthraquinones (AQs), secondary metabolites, which are important in the pharmaceutical and food industries. We have found previously that shear stress elicited anthraquinones production in R. tinctorum suspension cultures growing in a stirred tank bioreactor operating at 450 rpm (1). The study of the mechanisms involved in shear stress elicitation would require a more complex experimental design. For this purpose, the bioreactors available become a limiting step. The aim of this work was to design a down-scaled and simple culture system which allows replacing bioreactor experiments with shaked flasks to study shear stress elicitation in R. tinctorumcell suspension cultures.